Romney Wins Straw Poll, Huckabee Takes Second

WHAT? This has got to be rigged. I was there. There was no way that Tancredo had more voters than RP.

A take Huckabee pulls off an upset, Romney’s win isn’t so big after all, Tommy Thompson is on the way out…

I see the big question as this: Brownback has been shown up by a seriously underfunded opponent. If he can’t beat Huckabee at Ames, is it time to drop out? Or was the count close enough to keep both Huckabee and Brownback in the race, leaving them to suck energy and support from one another?

Big surprises Here’s how I rank the surprises:

1.) Romney underperformed big time. I suspect he lost some votes from people he paid to haul to the polls. He stump speech kind of left me wanting more.

2.) Mike Huckabee is definitely the big winner. I wasn’t terribly impressed with Huckabee, either, but anyone who invokes Christ’s name like Huckabee did will do well. I was surprised for another reason: Bob Vander Plaats is proving to be the kiss of death for Republicans and I really didn’t think — given how he has run his own campaigns — that he could be much help.

3.) Call it revenge for their lack of participation but McCain and Guiliani should have placed higher with party faithful. These are 14,000 Iowans who WILL vote in January (or December) and both did lousy with them.

4.) Brownback’s third place finish puts him in the top tier. He’ll get some attention because of it.

5.) So will Tancredo.

6.) Ron Paul did much better than I expected. The energy of his supporters obviously translates to votes and that’s something to keep in mind come January (or December). I personally found most of his speech to be the most digestable of all of those I heard on Saturday. I think Brownback was the best speaker of the day, even though I disagree with so much that he says.

7.) The xenophobes didn’t do as well as expected. All these guys talk about building fences and deporting illegals but Brownback and Tancredo were aiming for the fence with their messages. Didn’t quite work, although the number of votes they received was frightening.

Dien, you expected Huckabee to do better than second? You must have also thought your mom was going to win the nomination last year. By the way, despite the promises that Culver made to her she has been almost invisible in this administration, especially compared to the last Lt. Governor. Sure she’s a nice woman, but I’d be pissed if I were her.

Due victory Nice to Romney get his due–that win is huge, well deserved, and higher than predicted by polls.  People talk about buying votes, high expectations, blah blah blah, but when it comes down to it, Romney was favored by intelligent, discriminating Iowans by a LONG shot.  Period.

Dude Where’s my Country Amazing how easy it is to mind control 300 million Americans into believing that a Democrat from Massechussetts who funds abortions and co-owns juvenille centers under suspicion of instituting sexual molestation can win an Iowa GOP straw poll.

I hope you all wake up before Romney takes your kids to the FEMA camps

Ron Paul Mistake I made a mistake and voted for Romney.
Ron Paul was clearly the best candidate and I feel very upset with my vote.  My wife also voted for Romney and we talked on our way home and both agree that we made a mistake.  My son is from Indiana and also came as a Romney supporter and he also feels the same.  It appears we’re going to change our vote by January to Ron Paul.

Way to go Ron… Ron Paul did better than the GOP establishment wanted.  Not bad for only being in Iowa for a week.  With plenty of cash still in the bank to run a National Campaign.

I’m glad I spent the day teaching local residents in my state about the message of freedom –handing out flyers and conversing.  Judging by the response I get on the streets, once we get past that name-recognition problem Ron Paul will be a force in this election cycle.  Welcome to the rEVOLution!

Ron Paul supporters:  DO NOT BE AFRAID OF HITTING THE STREETS AND TALKING TO PEOPLE!  The ordinary American is starved for the message of Freedom and Hope.  It is up to us to bring it to them.  And it is also FUN!

Ron Paul ad in the Ames Tribune Did anyone catch the full-page Ron Paul ad in today’s edition of the Ames Tribune?

Just so you know, that ad was conceived, funded, and designed by independent grassroots supporters in less than a day!  Check out my write-up on it here:
http://spirit76.org/…

Not only that, but so many requests for copies of the paper containing the ad came in from all over the world (including orders from US military bases in Iraq) that the Tribune had to print an extra run of the paper, bring in extra staff to man the phones, and they made so much money that they donated 500 loose copies of the ad to the Ron Paul campaign as a gift!

It’s truly a beautiful ad, and a guy like Mitt Romney would have spent 10 weeks and $10,000 buying photographs of supporters, having focus groups analyze the ad, and having consulting psychologists approve the text.  Ron Paul’s grassroots supporters put together one of the most beautiful political ads I’ve seen all by themselves in a matter of 24 hours.

The support this guy has is AMAZING.

Great win for Huckabee I’m glad Huckabee did so well, him along with Brownback and Ron Paul are the only 3 guys I like out of this lineup. Romney has too much flip flopping going on and has already admitted that he would lie to get votes. Fred Thompson is just a big dumb zombie who would be lost without his wife and as for Rudy, I have NO IDEA what he’s doing running for the gop ticket. He’s just a one trick pony that tries to exploit 9/11 by switching from democrat to republican. Sadly I just don’t see our party winning the 08 election with the pro war stance. Unfortunately democrats are going to clean house in 08 unless something is done about out of control spending and the Iraq war. 

Big Losers Brownback therw everything at it and despite all expectations Huckabee beat him.  Shocker.

Tommy Thompson is dead.

Paul, Tancreo beat expectations.

Bad night for Fred Thompson.  Means good for Newt.

McCain dead last (except for Cox who doesn't count.)  Rudy tanks too.  Sounds like Iowa Republicans really do punish those who don't play ball.

Nice win for Romney, practically twice the votes They are all sucking energy from each other and ought to all drop out and get behind Romney so that Rudy does not win the nomination.  If you care about the lives of babies or want a nominee with the business acumen and leadership gifts to save our nation, Romney is the way to beat Rudy, and really the one who can distinguish from and defeat Hillary at the General election.

I'm glad Huckabee took 2nd.  He would be a good VP to Romney, I think.

Big surprises Here's how I rank the surprises:

1.) Romney underperformed big time. I suspect he lost some votes from people he paid to haul to the polls. He stump speech kind of left me wanting more.

2.) Mike Huckabee is definitely the big winner. I wasn't terribly impressed with Huckabee, either, but anyone who invokes Christ's name like Huckabee did will do well. I was surprised for another reason: Bob Vander Plaats is proving to be the kiss of death for Republicans and I really didn't think — given how he has run his own campaigns — that he could be much help.

3.) Call it revenge for their lack of participation but McCain and Guiliani should have placed higher with party faithful. These are 14,000 Iowans who WILL vote in January (or December) and both did lousy with them.

4.) Brownback's third place finish puts him in the top tier. He'll get some attention because of it.

5.) So will Tancredo.

6.) Ron Paul did much better than I expected. The energy of his supporters obviously translates to votes and that's something to keep in mind come January (or December). I personally found most of his speech to be the most digestable of all of those I heard on Saturday. I think Brownback was the best speaker of the day, even though I disagree with so much that he says.

7.) The xenophobes didn't do as well as expected. All these guys talk about building fences and deporting illegals but Brownback and Tancredo were aiming for the fence with their messages. Didn't quite work, although the number of votes they received was frightening.

Dien, you expected Huckabee to do better than second? You must have also thought your mom was going to win the nomination last year. By the way, despite the promises that Culver made to her she has been almost invisible in this administration, especially compared to the last Lt. Governor. Sure she's a nice woman, but I'd be pissed if I were her.

Simple. Ron Paul had at least as many supporters there. However, a higher percentage of Tancredo's supporters were Iowans and could vote.

Due victory Nice to Romney get his due–that win is huge, well deserved, and higher than predicted by polls.  People talk about buying votes, high expectations, blah blah blah, but when it comes down to it, Romney was favored by intelligent, discriminating Iowans by a LONG shot.  Period.

Falls Short Looks like Romney finished 5,000 votes less then expected.

Spent $2,200 per vote.

Ron Paul spent $200 per vote.

Ron Paul's message 10 times more powerful?

that's what I was thinking All year they've been saying 30,000 people would show up for the straw poll.

I think the people who did poorly can use that as an excuse–the total number of people was only 10-15 percent of the number likely to participate in the caucuses.

Huckabee could beat Hillary I would really not want to see that matchup.

Huckabee would be a strong candidate. I am hoping that the Club for Growth types will keep him out of the top tier.

Okay, I'll bite… Please do not attempt to put words in my mouth. Thanks.

No, I didn't expect Huckabee to get first place, and I never said that.

I expected Huckabee to exceed expectations, and Romney to have a weaker showing than everybody thought he would have.

I wrote this yesterday on my blog:

http://smokyhollow.b…

Also, check in the comments section of this post:

http://www.iowaindep…

My mom and Gov. Culver make a great team. They have plenty of accomplishments to be proud of already, including a very successful legislative session.

But what is the party's excuse? The poor turnout is a very poor reflection on the RPI and the field of presidential candidates. They couldn't come close to the 1999 turnout. I think this really reflects poorly on the Republican Party, and now they have to scramble to raise money to pay for their caucus. I figure they are at least $700,000 short of what they were expecting.

Excellent! First off, let's stop the conspiracy stuff.  This is great news for the Ron Paul campaign.  Mitt Romney spent tons of money and over a year in Iowa and only bought 4,000 some votes.  Not really good if you ask me, but he did win.  Ron Paul was concentrated really in the past week and got a little over 1300.  I think that is GREAT news! 

To my fellow Ron Paul supporters-quit wasting your time talking about conspiracies and malfunctioning machines, what is that going to change? NOTHING.  Take this as a good thing and run with it!  Don't be negative!

God Bless and go Ron go! =)

Dude Where's my Country Amazing how easy it is to mind control 300 million Americans into believing that a Democrat from Massechussetts who funds abortions and co-owns juvenille centers under suspicion of instituting sexual molestation can win an Iowa GOP straw poll.

I hope you all wake up before Romney takes your kids to the FEMA camps

And who believes the vote count? The optical scan machines that they use in Story County have not malfunctioned before, so it is just too convenient that one breaks down today. And wouldn't you know it that the machine that broke down had the most votes!

that's a good point Probably a lot more than 14,000 tickets were paid for.

Still, I bet they took a hit on this event.

This circus is yet another reason why Iowa is probably never going to get to go first again.